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Ahh, you started a TR

Great topic! This is going to be interesting! And will be very much a learning place for us " jonges" that only start to buy the stuff now....

So please do give advice here all the oomies and tannies that have been camping for milleniums!!

Great Thread

Having recently got into camping in 2010, I all to aware of this. I started off buying a great big 10 sleeper campmaster.....We camped the first time at the 2010 cricket( Myself and my dad) and boy that was an experience, matress on the 1 table and 2 chairs. We used it a few months later with the whole family and after one rain storm it started having issues

So after that my Dad invested in a more expenive more modest 4 sleepers, but it was bigger and wouldnt fit in the car, so naturally the trailer eventually followed as well as a gazebo. Needless to say I did buy a lot of crap along the way that we dont even use any more. I can finally say we have our camping down to an arty now and we know what we want to do, we now how to pack it and we dont need any more fancy gadgets.

Here are some of my tips!
1. When buying a tent quality over quantity, and spend a bit more to get good quality.
2.Tent pegs, I have never found a standard tent peg that comes with a tent strong enough for kruger. You will have to buy stronger ones or make your own like I have, they go straight through concrete
3.Hammers: Rubber Mallets dont work, get a good 4 pound hammer
4.Blow up matress's: I cannot express to you how much I hate these things, I am yet to find a good quality one that last for a good period of time. So I brought a stretcher, if you dont get a good nights sleep you wont enjoy the trip.
5.A table, you have to have a table, you cant use the cooler box, how are you going to get new drinks out??
7. Lastly make sure you are enjoying yourself, and camp in the way that makes you happy, dont try to keep up with the Jones'

Here is a REAL confession.

When camping in winter, take an electric blanket.

Lying in bed at night, one hears the sounds of the bush, that chalet people miss.

Hi Avon! I loved reading that after trying all the fancy stuff, you're back in a tent!!!

I'm attaching the link to my first camping experience (I splashed out R200 on a tent as I wasn't sure if I'd even like camping!) A photo of my tent is about half way down the first page ...

viewtopic.php?style=2&f=27&t=48237&hilit=Confirmed+Kruger+Camper%27s+Trip

Since then I have bought a bigger tent and have a few more necessities and, apart from during the rainy season, I am a camping addict! Love it, love it, love it!

I stay in accommodation during the rainy season, but as you said, lying in a bed listening to the the air con unit and the fridge freezer just can't compete with lying in a tent and listening to the nightlife bush sounds!

I have posted it about 2 years ago in another thread, but it is worth repeating it. Whilst on our way back from Zambia, we stopped and camped at Gweta in Botswana. Not that we are experts, but we have learned the hard lesson by packing in too much stuff. In no time flat, our camp was pitched and we then started the fire.

Just then two brand new Land Rover Defenders from Gauteng arrived. It was Oupa and Ouma in one vehicle and Sus and Daan in the other one together with their two kids. We could not believe what happened next. They opened the vehicles and unpacked everything, which was still in the original packaging. It was put in a semi circle behind the back of the vehicle. Suddenly they realized that there was nothing to sit on, so they looked for the bags with the chairs. After finding it, they could not unfold the chairs. Being good neighbours, we walked over to help them

By then it was getting dark and they could not find the box with lamps and torches. So, all their stuff were removed from the packaging and the latter were used to make a bon fire. After a lengthy period, the torches were found, but did anybody remember to buy batteries? No.

To make a long story short, By midnight, they have still not managed to sort out everything. And then came the cherry on the cake. Oupa and Ouma had a rooftop tent, but Ouma was unable to climb the ladder to get into the tent. Apparently she was too old and didn't have the strength to go upstairs. Oupa tried to push her up, but that did not work.

The next morning everything were thrown (not packed) into the vehicle and the return journey to Gauteng started.

The bottom line is, know your equipment before you go camping. You can even pitch your tent in your garden and stay there for the weekend. Then you will know what is working and what not.

Very interesting topic. Brought a few smiles. My parents told me I was 1 month old to the day when they took me camping by the sea. Mind you the whole family went, Granny, Grandpa, aunts, uncles cousins and all. So I started young. My cousin was a month older than me and we shared a cot (a proper iron cot) so it was luxury for me. We camped every year over Christmas holidays (6) weeks at the sea until my late teens. Later years my SO and I bought a caravan when our kids were 7 and 5 years old. They are now 42 and 40. The caravan was packed over June/July school holidays and we went at first by ourselves then later with caravaning friends all over SA, and even Zimbabwe and Namibia.. My kids know South Africa and especially Kruger. My oldest takes his family at least twice a year and they camp in a good size tent. Their equipment is packed into a 6ft Venter but I daresay it will be getting a bit too small for all the equipment soon. I enjoy the luxury of a caravan, we now have a 2 man van, light and easy for two old fogies to move around and tow. My fondest memories are the Kruger and Namaqualand flowers.
One thing about tent pegs and Kruger. Take an electric drill and long bit of the correct thickness. Drill the hole in the correct place then knock the peg into that hole. A 4 pound hammer is also an essential. One camper also wrote that 6 inch nails (each one with a washer) is best for tenting.
I hope you enjoy your tenting for a long time - and lie back and enjoy the night sounds of Kruger for many years.

After reading a post a couple of years ago about the 6inch nails and washers I went to buy a kilo of them. I couldn't believe how easy it suddenly became to pitch the tent, and when returning home, I threw away all the bent and damaged tent pens that came with the tents. I swear by those nails and washers

As a kid we also went caravaning all over the country, then I bought a tent some 10 years or so ago, and replaced it later with a special two bedroom tent brought from Holland by Roaneric. Now we have the 2 bedroom tent, a 3 man tent and a 2 man tent. They are all stored away in our truck now, and only taken out when the kids are going along on our trips, or when we have guests that prefer camping to chalets.

At this stage, our truck is the best, as the only thing you have to do when set up camp is to loosen the 2 tables that are fixed on the side, take out our 2 camping chairs and there you go, ready for a fire If we are staying in one camp more than one night, we put up the gazebo and leave the chairs under it.

So I'm not alone

Groundsheets

Can anyone remember the days when the campsites were nicely covered with lawn? Those were the days - until someone realized that if you cover the grass with a solid groundsheet for two weeks at a time it's a hopeless task to keep the pristine lawn going. At Lethaba the solution was to lay some brick paving at each and every stand and requesting people to make use of it.

The years went by and the lawn deteriorated into bare ground, the solid groundsheets were replaced with the netted versions that were easier to clean and so much lighter. Some people even decided to make use of both (because you already had a solid one anyway). Then on that one trip the rain came down by the bucket load.

Well, I suppose the whole idea behind having groundsheets surrounding your villa was to try and keep the sleeping section (which by now was only about ten percent of the total floorspace) completely dry and free of dirt. Add-a-room-tents with more folding tables, more stretchers for the kids, washing machine and tumble dryer for the rainy days, etc. taking up the rest. Have you ever seen so many people digging trenches for the water (with a tin mug) to run around the villa instead of through it? At the time some even realized that maybe a spade would be helpful in the future and they never went camping without one in the years to follow. Now to pack up and go with the very wet and dirty mess of tents, furniture and six groundsheets, because you had to get from Lethaba to Lower Sabie to do it all over again.

Fortunately this knowledge served us well during our camping trip to Maroela during the 2012 floods. Rally tent, two folding tables and two folding chairs can be packed up in a hurry - even when it's soaking wet. Keeping dirt and rain out of the sleeping area became much easier when we found a simple solution - remove your shoes/sandals, put them in a bag and place underneath the step or hang them somewhere convenient just on the outside of the door. You are going to clean the inside of the van when you get back anyway, not so?

Mebbe a rethink about that battery powered drill with the flat battery for the tent pegs are in order

What's wrong with me, men don't easily admit having bough junk

Avon, come camping with me, between the two of us, you do the camping, I will sort the Braai and coffee with rusks.

Scipio you should offer to knock in the tent pegs and do the braai.

Scipio has no time for that, he is chatting up all the grannies and getting coffee, rusks etc.

Ah the Spade

Last year when we camped in December for the first time I tiold me dad we need to take a spade, after much too-ing and Fro-ing he agreed the spade needed to come with.

On the 2nd night when it rained at CB I could have made a fortune if I charged every one who used the spade that night

I remember back to camping when I was a young child camping in the grassed camping area's, now they are all gravel and thorns if you are at Skuks, we never leave home with out out small rake, nothing worse than having put up your tent and finding a huge stome under your tent.

Freshly baked bread anyone?

Us humans are funny creatures. I cannot even begin to count the times I have uttered (and listened to) the words "ek wil nie sukkel as ons kampeer nie" (I want things to be easy when camping). We can easily and at length try to justify the reasons why we bought some new gimmick, but to admit that we may have wasted our hard earned cash requires us to go through a process. This process can take a while, sometimes even years will go by. Firstly you must be able to admit to yourself that you might have been wrong, then you need to start questioning the reasons why you now think that way. We all buy stuff based on the information we have available at a certain point in time (impulse and crafty salesmen plays some part in this as well). Secondly you must be able to admit to yourself; and only after that to others, that you were indeed wrong and then start investigating alternative solutions. The more you do this the more you realize that it's not the end of the world and the easier it becomes.

Sometimes plain old stubbornness makes the above rather difficult. Picture this - the smell of freshly baked bread drifts across the camp in Satara. You cannot help but wander across to find the source of this rather unusual and out of place aroma. You start talking and gathering information and as soon as you get back from your trip you visit the gimmick store and purchase the following:- One scaled down version of a Weber charcoal dome braai (because it's only for two people anyway). Two scaled down versions of aluminum bread baking pans. Four packets of instant ready mix wholewheat bread (just add water). Charcoal and firelighters - you have listened well and know that you only need six briquettes and know the exact time it will take to bake the perfect bread in Kruger.

On the very next trip (after trying your newly acquired magic at home) you find some space somewhere in the vehicle and cart everything with to Maroela. Even before you run out of freshly baked bread purchased at Hoedspruit you fire up your contraption and bake two lovely and healthy wholewheat breads. The choice is now yours - either you will be eating bread only for a few days or you will share with your new neighbors that pitched camp next to your site. And so the cycle starts all over again.

At the end of the day you could have stayed at least six extra days camping with the money spent on two (make that one, because that was your share) perfectly baked breads.

Avon, for a moment there I thought you bought one of those bread baking machines and took that with you